IRCTC withdraws tender for appointing consultant for suggesting business strategies

New Delhi [India], August 26 (ANI): The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) on Friday withdrew its tender for the appointment of a consultant for suggesting business strategies using the available data.
"Due to the withdrawal of Personal Data Protection Bill 2018 by the Government of India,...E-tender for appointment of Consultant for Data Monetization of Indian Railway/IRCTC floated by IRCTC, on 29th July, 2022 has been withdrawn," the IRCTC informed in an official notice.

Earlier, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor-led Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology summoned the micro-blogging site Twitter and IRCTC before it on Friday to discuss "citizens' data security and privacy".
The panel has likely questioned them about the tender floated by it to hire a consultant to monetise its passenger and freight customer data, sources said.
IRCTC has more than 10 crore users for which it has hired a consultant through attender to monetise Passenger data. Why is this being done is what the panel was likely seeking answers for?
Sources also said that the panel would question Twitter on its management and composition and whether it has been done to extend favours to a particular political party.
On 3 August 2022, the union government led by Information and Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced its decision to withdraw the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill, 2019. This long-awaited legislation will be replaced with a comprehensive Bill for contemporary digital privacy laws.
The Tharoor-led panel has been holding meetings with various stakeholders including tech companies, social media firms, ministries and other regulators and is likely to finalise its report before the term of the committee ends on August 30, 2022. (ANI)